Climate change experts shared data of how Miami will lose freshwater resources from its water by 2050 during COSEE Florida’s Water as Habitat science café. In the spirit of Gramps’ Tuesday trivia nights in Wynwood Miami, COSEEMIA hosted its very own trivia game to kick off October’s science café. The panel included Dr. Harold Wanless, Chair and Professor of the University of Miami’s Geological Sciences and Laura Reynolds, Executive Director of the Tropical Audubon Society.

The evening started with participants answering questions on trivia cards related to climate change. Standing in front of the poster they thought answered their question quickly showed its difficulty for the Miami residents. The participants shared their knowledge to questions ranged from “How many feet of sea level rise is needed to flood the Port of Miami and interrupt trade?” to “How many inches has the sea level along the Florida coast already risen since 1960?” However, participants noticed information around climate change in Miami is misunderstood, even within the science community.

Dr. Harold Wanless shared data of climate change models for Miami while discussing the limitations and assumptions for each model. The audience was able to see the severity of sea level impacts on southern Florida. Afterwards, Laura Reynolds presented a mini-workshop on policy issues in Miami-Dade County to engage residents before the upcoming mid-term elections. Reynolds highlighted the ramifications of Yes On Amendment 1, as well as the political reasons surrounding Florida’s action to change its message on climate change, to ensure Miami residents are prepared for these measures in the environment.

After the café, engaged participants stayed to discuss more of the impacts in climate change with food provided by COSEE Florida.

###​If you weren’t able to make it out to this event and want to find out what was discussed, check out the storified twitter-convo!